Magic Comes Chasing
by Unformal Sorrelle
Summary: "I wasn't aware that they used owls as carrier pigeons over in this backward country."
1. The Start of All This Nonsense

Kaiba held back a yawn as he looked through even more of his email. He skimmed through an update of what was happening back at his headquarters in Japan and frowned. It looked like they were all slacking without him. Why else wouldn't there be more progress on the current VR project? He really did have to do everything himself.

Two months, he reminded himself, it was only two months he planned on living in London to help set up for gaining a foothold in the UK's gaming market. Two months was nothing.

Sure, having to manage his company like this was annoying, and going to so many meetings with foreign investors was annoying, but he could survive. He could go two months without his lab and getting to really tinker with his projects. He didn't really need to duel Yugi for a while. He was fine. Really.

He growled when he read over a typo of all things. It was on one of the new ads and if it had actually been printed then someone was getting fired. How lazy could people be?

Out of the corner of his eye, he detected movement. Seeing it was Mokuba-sized, Kaiba's shoulders relaxed marginally. He didn't turn his head until he had finished sending a particularly vicious response that he thought was threatening enough to make everyone in Domino shape up.

Indeed, it would cause several panic attacks and tears would be shed.

Kaiba blinked. His face fell slightly. There was an owl on his brothers shoulder. Now, he had two options on how to handle this. He could pretend it was perfectly normal- maybe it was a new hologram or something?- or he could snark at the owl until it went away.

"Is there a reason why you brought a filthy bird into our office?"

Mokuba smiled and alarms went off in Kaiba's head. That was a dangerous smile. Apparently Mokuba had a plan. Maybe it'd at least be more entertaining than reading yet another office memo…

"It brought me a letter, big brother."

"I wasn't aware that they used owls as carrier pigeons over in this backward country."

"Just because they don't have Duel Monster tournaments doesn't mean they're backward, Seto." Mokuba chided. He hid a chuckle unsuccessfully. One of these days, Kaiba was going to have to teach him a better poker face.

Anyways, Duel Monsters was an internationally recognized game. He knew insane people who grew up in tombs who played it. Yet, somehow Duel Monsters hadn't made it big in Britain? How was a cult of Egyptian fairytales more cultured than an entire country? Britain was so backward.

And now it looked like they sent their mail on birds. Was he supposed to find this charming?

"Who sent you the letter?" Kaiba closed his laptop. Who was he going to have to sue if Mokuba got bird flu?

"It was a school." Mokuba chirped and shoved his hands in his pockets. The owl on his shoulder shifted its balance so it wouldn't fall off. "I think I want to check it out."

"A school." Kaiba raised an eyebrow, especially at his brother's new feathered friend. He didn't trust a school that sent invitations by a bird. That was too close to all the weird stuff he'd just gone through with the madness that followed Yugi around. In fact, the owl brought a vague memory from a few years ago back to him. Some prank that happened when he was a kid? He couldn't quite recall what it had been since it had been so ridiculous and such an obvious trick that he hadn't thought of it in years. "I would have to look into its reputation. You do understand that we only have two months left in this country? And that you would have less time for your duties as Vice President?"

Kaiba had thought Mokuba liked his current tutor. Maybe it was the curriculum? Could it be boring his brother?

"I know." Mokuba rolled his eyes. "But I think it would be a valuable opportunity."

Was Mokuba trying to use business negotiation skills on him? Already with the persuasion techniques. This school must have really caught Mokuba's attention.

"What's so special about this owl school?" Kaiba forcibly schooled himself into a bored nonchalance, ready to hear the pitch. Then the owl gave him an evil look and screeched at him. Kaiba didn't jump back. Yes, his chair rocketed backwards but that was just a coincidence. Kaiba glowered at the owl, his eyes smoldering in a rage that had made several employees turn tail and run like cowards. The owl ignored him and started stretching its neck.

"Well, big brother, I'd get to be around people my own age." Mokuba held up a hand when Kaiba rolled his eyes, "Which if you remember those psychology books I showed you, that's a good thing."

Kaiba didn't get it, but he let it stand. He'd read a lot about social psychology and a little bit of developmental psychology but it was hard to take seriously. Psychology wasn't a hard science so much of a bunch of theories that couldn't be tested without a bunch of human rights violations. Ok, Kaiba admitted that wasn't all that fair, but it wasn't as logical as tech. But Mokuba thought things like friends and peers were important so sometimes Kaiba had to indulge him.

"You could get that at any school. Please tell me that you don't just want to go there because they have owls." Kaiba rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"The school also offers subjects that I haven't seen anywhere else."

"Tell your tutor whatever you want to learn and they'll teach you about it. That's what we hired her to do."

"I think that it would be good preparation for the future."

"You still haven't told me what makes this school so unique."

Mokuba gave the owl a light scratch on the head. The bird looked utterly too pleased with itself. "Would you just trust me, Seto? Please? Promise you'll consider it. Trust me."

This was why negotiations with Mokuba were unfair. Well, it wasn't like Kaiba had any right to hold Mokuba back if this school was something he really wanted to do. They were a team after all.

He glared at the owl for a moment and then looked back at his brother. Mokuba looked a strange mixture of hopeful and sly. Kaiba could already tell he was going to regret this.

"…Fine."

Mokuba smiled brightly and the owl gave a strangely approving hoot. Kaiba couldn't help a faint smile and ruffled his brothers hair. Mokuba gave a laughing protest and the stupid bird tried to bite him.

Kaiba opened his laptop back up again, "Have you seen the numbers from the VR project? We need to approach this by-"

Well, if Mokuba was going to be going to a school then he might as well enjoy his time now. There was a lot of work to be done after all, and Mokuba was the only non-idiot he knew in this whole Duel Monsters deprived country.

…

Dear Deputy Headmistress McGonagall,

I am extremely interested in Hogwarts but I have a few questions about the school before I can agree to go. Would it be possible to schedule a meeting? I should be free on August 20th at 9 o'clock or August 21st between 10:00 and 2:00. I don't know if owls are the only way you can communicate but if you can, please call the Kaiba Corp London office to make an appointment.

Sincerely,

Mokuba Kaiba

…

"So you use wands? That's awesome!" The prospective student beamed up at her. It was almost enough to make Minerva forgive him for being such a hassle to set up a meeting with.

Now, Minerva McGonagall was a capable woman, and she could manage wrangling the muggle business world if she really had too, but was there a reason why muggles had to make things so tedious? She had already been in a bad mood from trying to hold the school together until it started back up again and then Dumbledore just had to go an hire that Umbridge woman! Perhaps, it was more of the ministry's fault than the headmaster's, however that was still no excuse. Because Delores Umbridge was joining the staff, half of the teachers had started a betting pool over just how much of a nuisance she was going to be. The other half were frantically adjusting their syllabuses to either take out anything a ministry stooge would see as problematic, or adding content in protest. To teach at Hogwarts meant that one was granted a certain level of trust and respect, deserved or not. No one was looking forward to politics entering their classroom and all the judgmental chaos that came with them.

Looking in on this young transfer student should have been a welcome break from all of that. That's one of the reasons she had not handed it off to Pomona or Charity.

Instead she'd found out that the boy had never actually been informed he had magic and was presumably a muggleborn. She had no idea why he hadn't been enrolled at Mahoutokoro, but she didn't know too much about the Japanese school in general apart from their Quidditch team. At least Mr. Kaiba would be around the same level as his age mates. She didn't have to worry about placing him in more advanced courses like she would have had to do if he had been a transfer from Mahoutokoro. Since they started their wizarding education at seven, it always made the few transfers between the two schools tricky.

McGonagall wasn't even sure if Hogwarts should take the boy. He'd shown up on the rosters since he was technically living here, but the boy had explained that he and his brother planned to be moving back to Japan in two months. The boy needed a magical education, that was true enough, but something had to be done.

Mokuba Kaiba was a charming enough child. He was quick to smile and seemed incredibly accepting at learning about the magical world. His english was almost without an accent, though occasionally he would pause until he found the right words. He seemed very bright, and McGonagall was sure he'd be a pleasure to teach.

It was just everything else.

"How does that work anyways?" Mr. Kaiba halfway reached out, not quite daring to touch her wand. "Would any old stick work?"

"No. Each wand contains a core which allows the witch or wizard to channel their magic. Although having a wand isn't necessary to do magic, wandless magic takes a lot more energy and practice."

"A core? It isn't like an ancient spirit or something, right?"

"Merlin, no." McGonagall tried not to chuckle, "It's commonly something like a unicorn hair or a dragon heartstring."

Mr. Kaiba's eyes bulged at the word 'dragon' and his grin widened. He was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Dragons exist? That's so cool! Seto will flip."

There was mention of the boy's mysterious brother again. From what McGonagall gathered, he was Mr. Kaiba's legal guardian. Perhaps the elder Mr. Kaiba would know why Mokuba wasn't attending a magical school before this.

"May I speak to your brother? I think there are many things that need to be discussed before you complete your enrollment."

"Yeeeeah…" Mr. Kaiba trailed off and looked at the floor. "I figured. That's why I made sure to get you to come when he wasn't in a meeting." The boy went over to the windows and closed the blinds. On the way back, he accidentally knocked into the corner of his large wooden desk in the center of the room. It was hard to believe that this office belonged to a child given all of the professional furnishings. It was only tucked away in corners that McGonagall could see some toys and gaming sets that better fit the boy in front of her.

"Do you know if your brother is magical? I know that you said that you didn't know about the magical world, but have you ever noticed anything that didn't fit? Maybe he has a wand, or strange things have happened around him before?" McGonagall didn't even know if she was hoping he was a muggle or a wizard at this point.

The young Mr. Kaiba laughed as he waved her through the door. He didn't stop giggling until they were both in the hall. "Big brother has magic alright, but don't tell him I told you."

McGonagall nodded uncertainly but maintained her composure. She almost asked the boy to elaborate but instead she continued to follow him. They reached a rather important looking door labeled Kaiba Seto- CEO. The boy didn't bother to knock and barged in, though he did remember to hold the door open for her.

A young man sat at a large cherrywood desk with a beautiful view of London visible through the window behind him. A silver briefcase sat on the left corner of his desk with a large pile of papers to the right. A plate with a barely nibbled donut looked forgotten in front of his laptop. In contrast, a large mug of coffee was right where he could reach it without any problems.

The young man hadn't looked up from his computer yet. McGonagall had to wonder his his clothing was normal in the muggle world. Surely fashion hadn't changed that much?

"Seto!" The younger Kaiba ran right up to the side of his brother's desk, "Remember that school you promised to consider letting me go to?"

"I had hoped that you'd forgotten that place. Didn't I show you that article on bird flu?" The young man continued to type.

"Yes, Seto." The boy sounded like he was humoring his brother. "But I have the Deputy Headmistress here to talk to you."

"I'm busy." He said flatly.

"No you're not." Mokuba Kaiba wasn't letting him get out of it. He latched onto his brothers arm and tugged slightly. "Now come on! You promised."

The elder Kaiba sighed and he finally looked up at her. McGonagall kept her face mostly expressionless but couldn't help her lips twisting into slight disapproval at seeing that spectacle. She wasn't one to be trifled with and he needed to know that.

To her surprise, even though he was young, his eyes were completely cold. There wasn't even a hint of polite interest. He was guarded and she could tell with how he shifted his shoulders that he was incredibly suspicious of her. She felt like he was analyzing her, looking for any weaknesses. If she hadn't taught decades of Slytherins then she might have been caught off guard. He had a similar dispassion, a cool arrogance.

It made her wonder how his little brother had turned out so friendly.

"I am Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, Professor Minerva McGonagall." She held out a hand for him to shake. "I trust that you are Mr. Seto Kaiba?"

He snubbed her attempted handshake and instead looked at his brother. "Hogwarts? Isn't that-" he said a few words in Japanese and looked puzzled when the younger responded an affirmative. "So, owls and hog warts… Have you decided to be a veterinarian without informing me, Mokuba?" He gave her another quick look before focusing back on his brother.

What a rude young man.

"It's not a veterinarian school, big brother."

"Really? Then I suppose that delivering messages with owls and naming institutions after swine aliments is just a quaint English custom."

"Seto! You promised you'd consider it. Be nice."

McGonagall felt the urge to take away house points or give a detention. Even if the elder Kaiba was tall, he still looked like he would be student aged. For all his posturing, in fact maybe it was because of this, he appeared to be a teenager. McGonagall knew just how to handle rude teenagers.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a school of magic, Mr. Kaiba." She cut in icily, "It is one the most prod-"

Kaiba was laughing. It wasn't a laugh of amusement. It was ugly with disbelief and a pinch of hysteria. His eyes took on a slightly manic glean.

"You have to be joking." He accused his brother.

"I have a plan." The younger Kaiba hissed.

"Magic doesn't exist."

…

"Just trust me on this!" Mokuba clenched his fists, "Let me explain."

"I knew the dweeb patrol would be a bad influence on you. Mokuba, all of that stuff was just a trick, just like this 'school' is. There is no such thing as magic, it's just cheap tricks." Kaiba glowered at the strangely dressed woman who had obviously muddled up his brother's brain with all this nonsense.

"I'm not asking you to believe in magic, I'm asking you to believe in me."

Kaiba froze, his eyes widened fractionally. Mokuba was pulling our the big guns. He wasn't sure how to respond so he decided to focus on the latest charlatan. Why did these people keep invading his life? Yugi wasn't even here this time. Things should have been trick free.

"Magic is very real, Mr. Kaiba." The stern-faced woman took a stick out of her robes. She glanced around the room before her eyes settled on the remains of a donut Mokuba had tried to get him to eat earlier. She waved the stick and the donut morphed into a brass doorknob. "How else would you explain that?"

"It must be a hologram, some kind of an illusion." Kaiba narrowed his eyes. She looked surprised with his lack of immediate belief. Ha. He'd seen more convincing effects done by that Egyptian lunatic. Pegasus had had more proof.

The woman pinched her lips together and gave her wand another wave. She said a few words and now the doorknob was floating in the air. "And now, Mr. Kaiba?"

"It's just a trick." Kaiba told her. "I'm not interested in any of this insanity. I didn't have a past life. Yugi is not a pharaoh. Magic is just a fairytale." He looked back to Mokuba, "Why did you listen to her? You know better."

Mokuba looked down. Kaiba wanted to call security to cart away this latest psycho with delusions and have a proper talk with his brother. He understood that being kidnapped as often as Mokuba had been in the last few months had been stressful, and that the tricks did point to something being real, not magic, but something. But even then, how often had he told his brother that magic didn't exist?

The woman was growing agitated. Probably because Kaiba had caught her lie.

"Mr. Kaiba, your brother needs a magical education. He has a power that if he doesn't learn to control it then it will become a danger." McGonagall reminded him of Gozoboro with her posture. She was used to being obeyed and saw herself as a figure or respect. The emotion in her voice confused Kaiba for a second before he reminded himself that she was nothing but a charlatan and this was all an act.

"Well if Mokuba ever starts pulling rabbits out of hats, I'll be sure you send you a message. Perhaps I could send it by bat?" Kaiba let all of his scorn flood his voice.

"Now, I'm sure you have other people to bother so why don't you run along and leave my little brother alone?" He let and unsaid 'or else' linger in the air. Hopefully the woman had two braincells to rub together and would clue in. He wasn't buying what she was selling.

"Mr. Kaiba," McGonagall's jutted out her jaw forward. "Would you take this seriously? I will not in good conscience allow any harm to come to your younger brother. It is in his best interest to attend Hogwarts and learn to control his magic. I do not know if you are aware, but untrained wizards often use their magic accidentally and they cannot control it properly. By refusing your brother an education, you put him and others around him at risk."

The accusation was clear. This old hag with a stupid hat was saying he was a threat to his own brother.

No one got away with that.

Just as Kaiba was about to finally send for security, Mokuba stepped in-between the two with his arms outstretched. Ever the peacemaker.

"What if Seto could come too?" Mokuba asked, his voice slightly wheedling. He looked at McGonagall with his most convincing expression. It was enough to make the charlatan relax the grip that she had choking her stick. What, had she planned on trying another trick? She had appeared to be ready to wave the silly thing again. Now she looked as puzzled as Kaiba felt. "You said that Hogwarts takes seven years of students, normally ages eleven to seventeen. Seto could be in 6th year." Mokuba nodded and then looked back to Kaiba, "Then you can make sure I'm alright."

"6th year? Are you saying that your brother is sixteen? I thought Mr. Kaiba was your legal guardian." McGonagall squinted down at Mokuba, looking thoughtful.

"I am." Kaiba countered. He knew it was a barely legal situation but if he hadn't been able to hold on to his brother, then what was the real use of controlling a multimillion dollar international corporation? No one was taking his brother from him. All those kidnappings aside. Well… nobody was going to keep him. He looked back at Mokuba, "Why would I go to a 'magic' school? I don't have the time to be indulging lunatics like her."

It wasn't like he'd even get a duel out of it.

Mokuba shrugged, "I think we could learn some stuff that might come in handy later. Like, what about the next time you duel Yugi and another crazy thing happens? Don't you want to be prepared?"

As much as Kaiba didn't want to admit it, Mokuba was right that insanity always followed dueling Yugi. It was to be expected at this point. That didn't mean Kaiba had any desire to actually learn more about the dork's weirdness. It was probably a slippery slope. As soon as he started buying in on any of the destiny nonsense then he'd probably be the next on to develop a split personality. Kaiba did not have time to cater to another personality. Hallucinating every so often was annoying enough.

"I told those nerds not to corrupt you." He crossed his arms. His coat rustled.

McGonagall muttered something that sounded like, "The worst sort of muggle." Whatever a muggle was?

"But Seto," Mokuba stepped closer. His grey eyes gained a spark of something. "Haven't you ever heard that magic is just technology that science can't explain yet? You admit that magic is tricks, but wouldn't you like to learn how people do them. Think about it. Please?"

"Mokuba…" Kaiba couldn't help but remember all of the things that weren't magic, it didn't matter what Yugi said, that had happened to them. He just wanted to leave it alone.

But Kaiba wasn't a coward. He didn't run away from anything.

"I bet that you can figure it all out before we have to go home." Mokuba knew just what he was doing. He'd issued a challenge.

Kaiba found himself laughing, full of disbelief. No. He was not getting dragged into yet another 'magical' adventure. He had a company to run, deck strategies to consider, and new blue eyes white dragon merchandise to design, as one does.

And he had thought London was irritation before.

"Mr. Kaiba," McGonagall addressed Mokuba, "In the eyes of the laws of the wizarding world, you do not have a magical guardian. This is the case of most muggleborn witches and wizards but except in special circumstances, the underaged witch or wizard's muggle legal guardian is still viewed as having custody. However, in the magical world, when a witch or wizard such as yourself is admitted to Hogwarts, the headmaster is granted in loco parentis and is allowed to act as a magical guardian for the student. This is for the students safety since muggles may not have the knowledge or resources to always care for the witch or wizard." She paused for a brief moment and Kaiba cut in with all the force of a white lightening attack.

"What are you saying, you old hag? Was that a threat? Are you threatening to take my brother away from me?" Kaiba's eyes glittered and he gave a dark laugh. "Do you know who I am? I would hunt you down and all of your freaky friends. I have faced far worse than some old woman and her tricks before. You can't even imagine what I would do to you. I'm not afraid of your 'magic,'" he spat.

McGonagall's face hadn't even reacted. Mokuba cringed.

"Mr. Kaiba," She nodded again at Mokuba, "If you want to go to Hogwarts then your brother can't stop you. Only a legal magical guardian of age can pull a student out of Hogwarts."

"Uhhh…" Mokuba looked at Kaiba, his eyes asking some question that Kaiba couldn't decipher. "Uh, Seto and I are a team."

McGonagall pressed her lips together. She did not look happy. Was that worry in her eyes? Ha. How weak. Showing fear to him. This is why charlatans shouldn't even attempt to take on someone so vastly superior to them.

"Now leave my presence before I have you arrested for attempted kidnapping." Kaiba reached his hand out dramatically, fingers outstretched. From his perspective it looked like he could crush the woman's stern face in his fist.

"But Seeetoooo!"

"…Mokuba, that was a whine." Kaiba cringed. Mokuba rolled his eyes in what Kaiba could only assume was in an apologetic manner. "Please, never do that again." Please.

"Seto, I do want to go to this school."

Kaiba's face went slack. He pointed at McGonagall's face. "She threatened to abduct you!"

"Why won't you trust me?" The whine was back. Kaiba shook his head, absolutely incredulous.

What was happening? What was going on? Surely, Mokuba couldn't expect him to believe any of this?

Suddenly, Mokuba sighed and straightened his features. He stood straight and lost the childish slouch. Then he winked.

Mokuba had said that he had a plan… Kaiba growled. They would be having a conversation later. But… Kaiba did trust his brother. Mokuba was the one he trusted the most. Did that mean giving him the benefit of the doubt? Usually, he would with few questions, but this was magic.

Except it couldn't be magic. Because magic didn't exist.

"It's not like I can stop you." That was the closest thing he'd give his brother to a yes.

Mokuba took it for what it was and shot his fist in the air with a loud, "Yes!" He grinned so widely that Kaiba thought that he'd done the right thing. Well, 17% of Kaiba. The sappy part that should have no bearing on decisions. "Thank you, big brother!"

Kaiba grunted and turned away, determined not to look a McGonagall's no doubt triumphant face.

He was 82.671% sure that he was going to regret this.

…

Kaiba should have been more worried about making an enemy out of Minerva McGonagall.

…

Dumbledore just didn't understand. McGonagall understood he was busy running the Order, but that didn't mean he had to neglect his duties as headmaster. Yes, Potter had just gotten in trouble with the ministry. Yes, Voldemort was back. However, Mokuba Kaiba was a bright young student who seemed to be trapped in an unhealthy situation. He needed their help.

Of course, Dumbledore had never taken students' home lives as seriously as she did. If she had her way, Potter would never have to go back to those dreaded Dursleys. In her mind, the protective blood magic didn't mean much if Potter wasn't actually protected from those horrible muggles.

She wanted the best for her students not the best for the world.

Right now, that meant taking a promising wizard away from a brother who refused to see the world as it was.

"And what if elder Kaiba is, in fact a wizard like his brother claims?" Dumbledore peered over his half moon spectacles.

"He didn't receive a letter." McGonagall argued, "And sixteen is plenty old enough to notice accidental magic. I doubt that the boy has himself so controlled that he has never lashed out and done something regrettable."

"And yet, the younger Kaiba is positive his brother has magic." Dumbledore looked curious. McGonagall frowned. She truly didn't appreciate his commentary sometimes. Save the whimsy for the opening feast.

"He is a boy who loves his brother. Mr. Kaiba doesn't seem to have any other family."

"Ah. Family is important, Minerva. Wouldn't you agree?"

"That doesn't mean that a young boy should give up his chance at a magical education for a brother who would never accept him." McGonagall said lowly. "Albus, it is our duty to help this boy."

"Be that as it may," Dumbledore said calmly, "Is it not also our duty to help the elder Kaiba as well?"

"If he is a wizard." McGonagall admitted, her teeth grating. "But Albus, you haven't met the boy. He's the worst kind of muggle and as prideful as any Slytherin. I can tell that he's probably had a rough life, and I pity him for what ever has made him so cold, but I don't think that he can be saved from himself. He wouldn't accept what was right in front of him. I fear that breaking his beliefs would only hurt the child. That kind of inflexibility is never easy to recover from when it snaps. I think he could survive his brother going away. I don't think he could admit he was wrong without grave consequences."

"How long did you talk to the boy, Minerva?" He raised an eyebrow. Minerva kept her stare straight on, but her cheeks colored slightly.

Perhaps she was overthinking the situation, but after decades of teaching she could recognize patterns. Seto Kaiba was similar to too many of her young students who had had too much pressure put onto them at a young age. But, there was also something different about him… She had never seen even a muggle outright deny magic when they'd seen it with their own eyes. Muggles would make excuses, but eventually the truth would hit them. Sometimes that was dangerous, especially if the muggle had conflicting religious beliefs or preexisting trauma, but they'd still believe. Yet, showing Mr. Kaiba magic was like showing a brick wall. If that brick wall were to immediately denounce the magic as nothing but an illusion, that is.

There was also the issue that it seemed like the Kaiba brothers had come across magic before. Mokuba had no trouble with believing magic, but he had been able to translate it to language that his brother could accept. He didn't seem in the least surprised at his brother's denial.

"A few minutes." McGonagall admitted, "However, they were memorable. I don't think I've ever been kicked out of a muggle office building before."

Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled. His benevolent smile was a smirk. McGonagall could just tell what he was thinking. She grimaced. Headmaster or no, that didn't give him the right to mentally laugh at her.

He waved his wand and a stack of parchment flew to his desk. He lightly perused the parchment as it floated in the air. After he finished skimming the first page, it went to the back of the stack. "Minerva, I will consider your proposal. I do agree that Mokuba needs a magical education, however…" He trailed off. His finger pointed to a line of spidery writing on the parchment. His eye crinkles deepened in amusement. "I do believe we will include Seto in this arrangement as well."

McGonagall stood up to look at exact what this nonsense Dumbledore had found was. It was the list of Hogwarts declinations. Under potential transfers, the name Seto Kaiba was there. The reason given was "previous declination of magical institution."

"But, he didn't know that witches and wizards existed!" McGonagall argued, "How could he have declined another institution?"

"It would have been over ten years ago, Minerva," Dumbledore said solemnly. "I don't know the circumstances but perhaps his parents wanted to keep his magic from him? Or perhaps something more troubling occurred?" He gave a sad shake of his head. "With what you've told me of his aversion to magic, it would not surprise me."

"I still hold that this is a mistake."

"That may be," Dumbledore sighed, "However I feel any other course of action would be remiss of us."


	2. The Suspicious Pub That Everyone Avoids

Magic Comes Chasing

 _Chapter Two: The Suspicious Pub That Everyone Avoids_

A Yugioh and Harry Potter Crossover

* * *

Mokuba made nice with the teacher, allowing Kaiba to ignore her existence. He walked through London, his hands shoved into his pockets and his coat billowing out impressively. Kaiba's scowl scared a few small children along the way.

Kaiba couldn't help but feel even more suspicious at the fact that the entrance to the "magical world" was supposed to be in a pub. If all these theatrics turned out to be nothing but set up for a drug trip then Kaiba didn't care what Mokuba's plan was. They would leave immediately and he'd call the police on these maniacs.

He understood the value of playing along with lunatics. There had been a reason why he'd put up with all of Noah's shenanigans as long as he did. As long as he stuck to the rules, then his opponent would be equally bound or they'd forfeit all rights to a victory. That wasn't to say Kaiba wouldn't go rogue if it suited him, but he'd make it the winning strike. He'd make sure that it finished the game. He'd make sure he obliterated his opponent.

Yet this was Mokuba's game. His brother had made that clear. Kaiba was supposed to go along with what his brother wanted. He wasn't really sure if he could really keep his distance but he was trying. For now, he'd just have to stack his deck with advantages and be ready to back his brother up if things went too far.

McGonagall pointed a finger to a place across the street. "The Leaky Caldron, gentlemen." Her lips thinned when she looked at Kaiba. "Now come on, let us not waste any more time."

Kaiba rolled his eyes and looked away deliberately. The Leaky Caldron, indeed. What a dump. It showed that hardly anyone even glanced at the place. People went out of their way to avoid it without even giving it a look. It was like everyone pretended the pub didn't exist.

Suddenly, he gained a new respect for Londoners.

McGonagall walked on and Mokuba followed her after a slight hesitation when Kaiba didn't immediately follow. Kaiba's eyes roved the street, looking for anything amiss. There weren't any suspicious vans, or people hanging around with obvious weapons. Of course, he couldn't tell what was inside the pub so it could still be an ambush, but at least his escape looked clear if they did have to run.

He turned his head back to where Mokuba and McGonagall had gone on ahead. His blue eyes widened. He clenched his fist. What was he doing here?

Kaiba knew that white haired dork anywhere.

He was even wearing his normal striped shirt. Did he own anything else? Then again, given that Kaiba's rival seemed only to wear his school uniform, this dweeb could be worse.

Kaiba thought about pretending he hadn't seen him. It'd be so easy. Even Mokuba had missed him. Then Kaiba could deal with this latest 'magical' stuff in peace.

Actually, no! After what he had pulled in Battle City, the dork deserved to be pulled into this!

"Bakura." Kaiba's voice carried even amongst the crowd. The boy's head swiveled and he had a look of utter bewilderment. "Why are you here?"

Bakura gave a nervous smile and awkwardly walked closer. A large man almost knocked him over but he dodged just in time. Kaiba didn't let himself breathe a sigh of relief that it seemed that this was Bakura's nicer and not absolutely psychotic persona. He still didn't understand how his Battle City tournament had brought so many duelists with dissociative identity disorder together.

"Hello, Kaiba!" Bakura waved. There was more than a little suspicion in his eyes. "I didn't expect to see you here. I just flew up to see my dad. He's back from an expedition and-"

"I don't really care." Kaiba cut him off. Bakura narrowed his eyes slightly but didn't argue. Good, perhaps he wasn't as bad as the rest of Yugi's little friends.

"However, I require your presence for the afternoon."

"What?" Bakura protested, bringing up his hands to the universal stop motion. "I really don't understand, erm-"

"Listen, dork. After what you pulled at Battle City, you owe me." Kaiba took a step forward. Bakura shrunk back. "This is right up your alley. Right now, there are freaks trying to get my brother to go to a magic school. It's utter nonsense, but Mokuba wants to check it out."

"Magic school?" Bakura's eyebrows raised and he looked more interested than frightened now. "I still don't understand why you think I'd be any help."

"I don't want your help," Kaiba spat. He ignored Bakura rolling his brown eyes. "But you have done these kinds of cheap tricks before." He growled, "At least you had the decency to keep it to theatrics during duels."

Bakura seemed to search for an exit. Then he sighed and shrugged. "Ok, I don't mind helping out my friends when they need it."

"We're not friends." Kaiba hissed.

"Friend of a friend then." Bakura managed.

Kaiba scowled but let it slide. That's what he got for enlisting a delusional fool.

With a growl, Kaiba turned on his heel and strode into the pub. Bakura followed cautiously, taking unsure steps. If he had been any slower then Kaiba would have yanked him forward.

Well… The customers of the Leaky Caldron sure knew how to put on a show. Kaiba couldn't help chuckling at their ridiculous outfits. Pointed hat? Robes? The mutt had better fashion sense. These people were just asking to be mocked.

"Uh, Kaiba? What exactly is this place?" Bakura asked quietly.

"Lame."

"You said something about a magical school? Are these people supposed to be magicians?" Bakura's eyes went wide when a man shook his wooden stick and a muffin went flying from across the room. The muffins owner, a young woman in a red hat gave a huff and pulled her own stick out. The muffin split in half, each piece flying in an opposite direction. "Is that magic?"

Kaiba scoffed, "It's a cheap trick."

"That's basically what you always say about magic." There was an edge of snark in Bakura's voice. His lips twisted into what would usually be called a smirk but the expression was somehow still innocent.

"Whatever." Kaiba had finally spotted Mokuba and McGonagall. Without a glance behind him, he rejoined the two.

McGonagall raised an eyebrow, "Mr. Kaiba, so glad you could finally join us."

She didn't sound glad at all. Kaiba didn't dignify her with a response.

"Big brother!" Mokuba beamed at him, "Professor McGonagall was just telling me about some of the classes at Hogwarts. Hey, professor, would Care of Magical Creatures have any dragons?"

"No, it would not." She shook her head firmly, "Dragons-"

"Bakura?" Mokuba interrupted. His mouth fell open in shock but then he gave a friendly wave. "Wow, it's so cool to run into you here."

McGonagall seemed irritated enough at being cut off. She seemed to direct every molecule of disapproval at Bakura. "Mr. Kaiba, who is your friend?"

Bakura gave a nervous chuckle and scratched the back of his head. Kaiba took a step forward and narrowed his eyes. "He is not my friend."

"Heh, heh, well…" Bakura sent Kaiba a searching plea for help. Ha. He really should have known better. This was pathetic. "I'm Ryou Bakura. I suppose I'm friends with Kaiba's fr- rival," Bakura corrected at Kaiba's glare, "We're in the same class at Domino High." He squirmed under McGonagall's stern expression.

"Mr. Kaiba," McGonagall shifted her frown, "Do you remember the statute of secrecy I told you about? The law that forbids witches and wizards from telling muggles that magic exists?"

"Magic doesn't exist." Kaiba argued. McGonagall did not look impressed.

"To be fair," Bakura said after an uncomfortable moment of silence, "Kaiba has never claimed that magic was real. In fact, he's always denied it. I don't know how, really, with what he's seen and all but that's Kaiba for you."

"If anything, you broke your own rule." Kaiba smirked, "Not that it matters."

"Mr. Kaiba, you can't just bring a muggle into the Leaky Caldron." McGonagall sighed. She suddenly looked very tired. "Now the ministry will have to get involved."

"Uh, that's not a good idea, professor." Mokuba winced. He gestured to Bakura's chest. "You still have your ring, don't you?"

"I can't get rid of it." Bakura's voice was very small. "I've been lucky that he's left me alone this trip, but he could wake up at any time." He unconsciously rubbed a scar on his arm.

"Give me a break," Kaiba growled, "Contain your craziness this time. I don't have time for another one of your psychotic episodes. Keep it together and I'll buy you a therapist."

McGonagall looked extremely lost. She wrinkled her nose and asked, "Please explain, Mr. Kaiba."

Mokuba shuffled slightly and glanced at Bakura. Bakura shrugged awkwardly. Then Mokuba shrugged himself, "Well, Bakura already knows about magic. He has a cursed necklace thing."

"You mean a split personality." Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Mokuba, you really shouldn't feed into his delusions." Kaiba felt a little insulted when Mokuba didn't immediately nod.

"A cursed item?" McGonagall's expression had froze. It seemed like she didn't know whether to take it seriously or not.

"I'd rather not talk about it, thanks." Bakura backed away. He had an overly cheery smile on his face. It didn't do a thing to mask the worry in his eyes.

Mokuba took a half a step forward, "Anyways, I'm not sure Bakura's a muggle."

McGonagall skeptically turned her head back to him. She missed Bakura mouthing 'muggle?' to Kaiba. True to form, Kaiba ignored him. All humans were non-magical. The term was redundant and didn't make any sense.

"Well, Bakura, did you notice the pub before Seto told you about it?" Mokuba asked. McGonagall's eyes widened and watched Bakura's face intently.

"Uhh, he never actually said anything about here. And the pub was right in front of me, so yeah I saw it. I was trying to figure out why it'd have such a strange name. The Leaky Caldron does stand out."

Mokuba nodded triumphantly, "And didn't you say that there were muggle repelling charms here, professor? So Bakura has to be a wizard, otherwise he wouldn't have noticed the pub."

"You have to admit that this is a little hard to believe." McGonagall pursed her lips together. "What are that chances of your brother bumping into one of his schoolmates and it just so happens that Mr. Bakura is magical?"

"Seto tends to run into a lot of interesting people." Mokuba smiled disarmingly. Kaiba snorted. That was his little brother's rehearsed innocent kid smile. Kaiba himself had given him tips on that one.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kaiba noticed more flying muffins. These people had the strangest illusions. The original muffin thief now had donkey ears and the woman's hat had shrunk down to something a doll would wear.

Kaiba retrieved his deck and started shuffling and the boring conversation continued. He didn't pay too much attention to the nonsense. It didn't concern him. He didn't care if McGonagall called her little fairytale ministry. Her resistance to Kaiba's attempt at bringing back up was telling. She wanted them alone. This was smelling more and more like a trap.

Mokuba better know what he was doing.

Eventually enough was enough.

"Look, lady," Kaiba gritted his teeth, "I'm not letting this dweeb get out of this. Bakura is accompanying us or I'm going to stop being so accommodating."

McGonagall did not give a snort of disbelief. Surely she understood that Kaiba was being uncommonly nice to all this madness. It wasn't as if he'd crashed a satellite into that school of her's… yet. Of course, he didn't have the coordinates for it. But Kaiba thought he was cooperating exceptionally well.

"Mr. Kaiba, I-"

A muffin flew. It was in a direct path to hit Mokuba's face. Kaiba didn't let it get that far and managed to slice it in half by throwing a card.

There was a bubble of silence as everyone who had seen gaped at him.

"I'm not gonna waste anymore time." Kaiba said clearly, stalking passed McGonagall. His coat flailed dramatically despite the lack of wind. He looked cool even though he had no idea where he actually needed to go. "Let's move, Mokuba… and losers."

* * *

 **A/N** : So this has been fun to write so far! It started out as an amusing what-if and grew. I will say that writing Kaiba (and yes, I am basing my characterization off of the dub. This makes some of the... word choices interesting. Kaiba has literally used the phrase "dweeb patrol" and I will never let that go) has been interesting. I hope you have been enjoying this as much as I have!


	3. Twig Destruction

Magic Comes Chasing

 _Chapter Three: Twig Destruction_

A Yu-Gi-Oh and Harry Potter Crossover

* * *

Bakura had not been expecting to get somewhat abducted by Seto Kaiba. When did he ever have anything to do with Kaiba? Sure, they ran in some of the same circles, the whole Yugi Muto Egyptian magic strangeness, but had they even had a conversation before? Bakura really hoped that the spirit of the ring hadn't done something regrettable…

And now he'd been dragged into British magic? Had the universe had no respect for a vacation?

"I say!" Bakura couldn't stop his exclamation as the stern witch tapped her wand on a brick wall. The bricks began to shuffle out of the way. The grinding sound was irritating. Behind the new opening was a loud, bustling street of color and movement.

It didn't really have anything on Domino after the Duel Disks came out, but for a shopping center without holograms it was pretty exciting looking.

Bakura looked at his companions expressions. Mokuba was just as enthralled as he was while the other Kaiba brother merely scoffed. McGonagall had a thin smile of approval and nodded at Mokuba.

"This is Diagon Alley." She gestured them to go forward. "We can shop for your school supplies here."

Bakura didn't mean to tune her out but he couldn't help but try to absorb everything around him. He vaguely registered Mokuba and her having some sort of conversation. Most of his attention was spent trying to absorb everything around him. He'd gotten good at sussing out unfamiliar locations. It had been a necessity after he'd started waking up in strange places whenever the spirit took a joyride. Diagon Alley was definitely the nice part of town. Kids ran all over it while parents barely spared a glance at them. Displays were somewhat gaudy, most of them had blinking lights or moving bits. Bakura was bemused to find that it was probably magic running them rather than the tech he'd see in Domino. Animals, especially owls, were everywhere and most of the people wore long cloaks that didn't come anywhere close to matching the billowing of Kaiba's coat.

Speaking of Kaiba, and his strange coat that Bakura almost wanted to check if it's constant dramatics were the fault of some kind of next-gen wearable tech, his voice cut into Bakura's observations.

"Ha, ha, ha," Kaiba threw back his head and his laughter drew the attention of everyone within a twenty foot radius. Bakura felt like hiding from second hand embarrassment. Must Kaiba always make himself the center of attention? "We don't need your charity. If we wanted to we could probably buy your whole little cult. Come on, Mokuba, let's find this sad excuse for a bank." With that Kaiba strode forth without a backward glance. The witches and wizards surrounding them parted before him.

The disapproving teacher pinched her lips together. Mokuba gave a pacifying smile.

"We won't be needing the scholarship to buy our supplies, but thank you Professor." It seemed that Mokuba was acting the part of translator. Bakura didn't envy him. He had no idea how he'd translate Kaiba's dramatics into proper human manners, but Mokuba probably had a lifetime of practice.

McGonagall decided to let it slide but she was probably making mental notes for when Kaiba was officially her student. Bakura highly doubted that Kaiba would actually put up with magic long enough for him to actually attend this Hogwarts place, but if he did then Bakura had a feeling that Kaiba already had a string of detentions lined up.

Bakura wondered if he could get away with leaving now. Could he wander off? Check out the place with all of the owls himself? There was too many interesting sights to explore, secret magic to learn about, and… he was stuck with Kaiba.

How did he get into these situations?

…

Kaiba was used to turning heads in a crowd. He was important after all. His big, pointy shoulder pads had nothing to do with it.

Now, 90s fashion could be quite colorful at times, and different sorts of crazy fabric tended to be an experiment. Crop tops, sweatpants, and crimped hair were all normal fair among the crowd. Girls would have dozens of butterfly clips. Guys around Domino defied logic with their hair.

They had nothing on wizards.

If the people inside the Leaky Caldron seemed strange, they were just a preshow for the crowd behind the shady alleyway brick wall. Diagon Alley was filled with people in cloaks. The colors were eye bleeding and the patterns changed. Hats pointed in dangerous looking peaks. Hair ranged between sanity and small creatures living in it. The shops and displays mirrored their bright whimsy.

Kaiba still caught the masses' eyes with his sharp white coat. He looked like he was from a different world. A few older wizards rolled their eyes at "muggle fashion" while some more in the know witches wondered if they'd missed the latest trend when they'd last ordered robes. Not many people had seen quite so many belts used on an arm before.

With so many eyes on him, Kaiba grew more certain this was an elaborate hoax. Any minute now he'd be jumped. It was surprising how much time, money, and effort had went into this charade.

Kaiba pretended that nothing was bothering him and he had absolutely no problems. Now this wasn't the truth, but if he managed to ignore the actual goblins maybe Mokuba would stop giving him disappointed looks. Kaiba didn't even let himself theorize on how to explain them. Luckily no one like Wheeler was here to rub his disbelief in his face.

He could however comment on the insane money system the cult had going on.

"What moron came up with this?" Kaiba narrowed his eyes at McGonagall. The professor unimaginatively pursed her lips in response. Galleons? Sickles? Knuts? Exchanging between the three was probably difficult for normal people.

Heh. Maybe the next VR game he made could learn from it. It might be hilarious to watch beta testers flounder about on something as simple as currency.

The fact that the last duel with Yugi had come at the price of Wheeler getting to beta test said game had almost nothing to do with Kaiba's amusement.

Perhaps this little adventure with Mokuba was good for something after all. There were never too many ways to mess with someone.

He shot a quick glance at his little brother and Mokuba seemed entertained. He tossed a Galleon up and down. "These are actually pretty heavy." He commented when he noticed, "I think it's actually gold."

"Or painted lead." Kaiba cut down snidely. Using actual gold seemed even more nonsense than the exchange rate.

The goblin at the counter glared. Kaiba did not flinch, Kaibas in general didn't flinch, but in this case it was a near thing. By the goblin's change in stance, he readied himself for the goblin to launch himself of the counter swinging. Apparently the goblin didn't like anyone questioning the integrity of the money. Kaiba subtly grabbed a card from his deck. He readied it between his fingers. The second that so called banker made a move he'd release it.

"Mr. Kaiba!" McGonagall raised her voice. Everything seemed to freeze. "It seems to me that we must be getting along." Her lowered eyebrow chastised him for antagonizing the banker. How was he to know that the so-called goblin took everything personally?

He bet it really was lead under that shiny exterior. He'd have it tested later.

"C'mon bro!" Mokuba grabbed on to Kaiba's arm. "I can't wait to get a wand. It sounds so cool."

"Sure, kid." Kaiba huffed and let himself be pulled away. The goblin was still looking ten seconds from declaring a blood feud. Kaiba paused, then his shoulders dropped. He looked straight into the banker's angered eyes, "Have a nice day."

…

It didn't take long to wander around the alley. Kaiba attempted to contain his scorn as McGonagall had his brother buy more and more ridiculous items. He could understand books. He was surprised at just how many books this cult actually had, but books for school supplies made sense. Caldrons? Phials? A winter cloak with silver fastenings? This cult took their witching aesthetic entirely too seriously.

Kaiba didn't miss how McGonagall not so subtly encouraged him to buy double of everything. She didn't look happy, but she now seemed to expect Kaiba himself to attend the silly school. It wasn't as if he would have just left Mokuba there alone. That was almost like paying for his brother's kidnapping. Yet, it wasn't like Kaiba was going there to be indoctrinated. He had no need to buy silly robes for himself. The cult's fashion sense was ridiculous.

He checked the ties on his sleeves and smiled faintly. No, he may have been going to the school of cheap tricks but he wasn't going to lower his standards. He refused the standard school clothes and created a custom order made with the express intention of wasting the seamstress' time at Madam Mulkins or whatever it was called. Watching McGonagall grow more and more frustrated as he added more to his robes was beautiful. He'd made sure to understand exactly what counted as acceptable for a Hogwarts uniform and bent every guideline without full on breaking them. For example, there was absolutely nothing stoping him from belting the sleeves or having the robes made from five different contrasting black materials.

"It looks like we have one stop left." McGonagall said briskly after Kaiba finally finished specifying the diameter of button he wanted. The shopgirl handed him an itemized bill and he grabbed a few handfuls of coins.

"Would that be to that pet store? I dare say I'd be interested in looking at those owls." Bakura stopped fiddling with his sleeves. He looked bored rather than nervous for once.

"You mean the wand store, don't you?" Mokuba said brightly.

McGonagall nodded as she bustled them out of the clothes shop. She started talking about different types of wands and Kaiba tuned out her nonsense. What did different wood types have to do with anything? Meanwhile his brother and Bakura listened with fascination.

Ollivanders was a dark little shop with a strange salesman and shelves of little boxes. It boasted an impossible history and their little group of four felt a little cramped inside.

"Most believe getting your first wand is best done by yourself but I feel we've no time to waste even more time on superstition." McGonagall gave him yet another one of her disapproving glances. "Some of us actually have a schedule to keep."

Kaiba almost laughed in her face but the old salesman finally spoke from behind the counter. He'd been putting away a twig into one of the many little boxes.

"Fir and dragon heartstring, nine and a half inches, stiff," he said as a non-sequitur, "Minerva McGonagall it's been an age."

"Ha." She tutted flatly. "It's not been that long since I was in with Miss Perks."

"Perhaps. Are all of these fine youngsters in need of a wand?" He looked them over. He seemed to pay special attention to Kaiba. He felt like shuddering under the man's sharp gaze.

"Me and my brother need one." Mokuba stepped forward. Bakura looked like he was about to say something but hung in the back where dorks like him belong.

"Hmmm…" The man waved his own wand and a measuring tape began taking measurements as he began to go through his shelves.

Kaiba wanted to refuse a wand on sheer principal. There was no reason to waste money on an overpriced stick. He loomed in a dark corner in the shop and Mokuba was measured by holograms. The fact he couldn't see the projectors didn't mean anything.

He was slowly learning about this wizardry nonsense. It seemed that this entire area was concerned in some sort of tech, maybe even stolen from Kaiba Corp given how advanced some of it was, and the wands contained a control core that read a person's movements and parsed out silly command words that were unlikely to come up in conversation to direct the surrounding technology. His duel disks did something similar so monsters would attack on time or effects activated when the duelist deemed dramatic. Perhaps he could hack into their system and just use his duel disk?

Mokuba was handed some twig that was so misconfigured it knocked down a shelf. The short storeowner clucked and muttered something about, "not that one." Kaiba grew more determined not to rely on this man's suspicious tech.

He pressed his duel disk's secret button and opened up a hidden control console. It was great for making minor tweaks. He tried searching if their was any wifi around but wasn't surprised when nothing showed up. Even in Domino wireless wasn't common yet. So what were the wands interacting with? There had to be some kind of signal.

Mokuba started glowing gold and for a moment the air seemed to swirl around him for a moment. His brother's smile was wide and genuine. It made Kaiba feel something deep in his chest. He didn't try to identify it and ignored the whole thing.

"Cherry and dragon heartstring!" Ollivander called out, "you must have greatness about you, young man. Be careful for that is quite a powerful wand. You have to be exceptionally strong of mind to control it."

Mokuba seemed quite taken with the flattery and McGonagall looked like she approved. Ollivander turned to Kaiba now. Kaiba disdainfully batted away the measuring tape.

"It's odd for someone so old to be getting their first wand." Ollivander inspected him in his creepy way.

"So kids are the only ones you can trick into this whole mess. Wow. I don't think I could come up with a worse insult."

Ollivander looked over to McGonagall when she rolled her eyes. "Mr. Kaiba doesn't yet believe in magic."

"Ah." Ollivander looked lost at that and walked to the back of the shop. "A wand for a skeptic, then? This will definitely be inflexible..."

Kaiba grunted and soon enough he had a stick shoved into his face. He picked up and inspected it. It was lighter than he'd expect and he couldn't see any hints of the tech inside it.

"Pine and phoenix feather, rigid, fourteen and a fourth inches," the old man rambled. "Well give it a wave!"

Slowly and sarcastically, he waved it and a shelf was propelled backwards into one of it's brethren. What a mess. Added to the shelf Mokuba had blown up this store looked like a war zone. Ollivander seemed surprised at the scale of destruction however and snatched the twig at once. The man dug around in some of the fallen boxes before coming up with a replacement.

What happened next was a montage of destroying the rest of the shop. Ollivander would mutter a wood- rowen, spruce, walnut, elder- and some other nonsense and Kaiba would wave it and break even more stuff. He couldn't help his dark smile.

"Alder and dragon heartstring, inflexible, fifteen inches. Good at dueling." Ollivander said tiredly, his hand shaking as he handed the twig over. It was a pale white wood, smoothed and polished. The handle had carvings on it that almost resembled wings.

Immediately, a feeling of warmth passed over Kaiba. White light emerged from the wand's tip. If one used their imagination it almost looked like a dragon with blue eyes. His arm shook and he dropped it. It clattered on the floor. He stood frozen as his brain tried to catch up. He knew what he felt but… Clearly, that was irrational.

"Brother?" When did he get Mokuba get to his side? It didn't matter. "Are you ok?"

Those words snapped him back to normal. Of course he was ok. He was always ok for Mokuba. He reached down and retrieved the silly stick, secretly glad when it didn't do anything.

"Tch, whatever."

"Kaiba that looked like-" Bakura said but Kaiba cut that stupidity off.

"So what?"

As Ollivander rang them up he looked over the brothers with another one of his all too sharp inspections. "Kaiba… Hmm. What was you're mother's name? There's something almost familiar about you two boys."

McGonagall gave them another look as well.

"Here's your money." Kaiba said in clipped tones before turning on heel and walking out.

Nobody noticed if one of Bakura's pockets grew slightly heavier.

…

McGonagall felt an unimaginable amount of relief when they finally exited Ollivanders. This had been a more trying day then shopping with any other student. As soon as she returned home she was going to brew herself a cup of her fanciest tea, a gift from one of her dear former students, put her feet up, and ignore any messages from Albus for the rest of the night. If the elder Kaiba wound up in Gryffindor she would demand a raise. She was not paid enough to deal with his attitude.

Never in her life had a student disrespected her so much. This boy would be living in detention, she could see it now. It was if he always had to have the power. He didn't respect anyone or anything. He was just full of snide comments and pettiness.

Admittedly, she couldn't wait to see how foolish he was going to look in his custom robes but that was neither here nor there. It would be completely immature of her to be looking forward to the laughs the other students would send his way. She was Minerva McGonagall and so she was above that.

Mokuba slipped closer too her and away from the problem child, "Professor? Now that I have a wand can I do magic?"

She smiled at his excitement. "Strictly speaking, children are only supposed to use magic at school. However, since you haven't been to school yet there isn't a problem if you practice little things. As long as you do so responsibly and away from muggles, the Ministry doesn't care. They treat it the same accidental magic given your age."

"What about my big brother?"

This required thought. Who knew since he almost legally an adult? It probably wasn't something to be experimented with. As much as she disliked the elder Kaiba, after Mr. Potter's trial earlier this summer the Trace wasn't anything to play with. She doubted the Ministry would have any political gain for calling up an untrained foreigner before the Wizgamot but at the same time, if they did prosecute Mr. Kaiba then they'd establish a precedent for whenever else they wanted to go after a minor in court. It's not like Mr. Kaiba would have any family or political connections to support him. Fudge and his cronies could then justify that handling Mr. Potter's case like they did was the new policy.

Before she could answer, the big brother snorted. "I'll leave the 'magic' to the crackpots."

"You will be busy finalizing the paperwork on Kaiba Land London." Mokuba nodded seriously, "there isn't too much time before we have to leave."

Kaiba snorted again and McGonagall decided to ignore him. The shopping trip practically done after all.

The brother's shy friend took a moment to speak up. "Have you told Yugi about this?"

Mokuba answered when Kaiba didn't. "Big brother doesn't want to encourage Yugi's magical 'delusions.'"

"You don't want any 'I told you so's, huh?" The teen laughed awkwardly. He shrank back at Kaiba's growl.

She was concerned at whatever magical situation existed between them. Everything was more than a little odd. There was a history here, especially with this "Yugi" who kept being brought up. The little references hinted at something dark, particularly with whatever Bakura's cursed object was. What was the state of wizarding Japan? Duels, monsters, and possession weren't normal. If Kaiba had presented himself any other way, she would have thought his denial was from trauma from these events.

"Mr. Bakura," she said once they reached the wall of the Leaky Caldron, "I would like a word."

The elder Kaiba huffed and the younger shrugged. Bakura followed her to a little out of earshot with an odd anxiety.

"You are aware that non-wizards are not usually made aware of our world. We have several laws in place to protect our secrecy."

"Yes." The teen shrunk in on himself. "I promise I won't tell anyone."

"This is a highly unusual situation."

The boy's posture changed minutely. McGonagall couldn't even name what was different. Or maybe it was just the wind blowing up his hair?

"I've known about magic for years, Professor McGonagall. You can't erase it from my life unless you'd be willing to steal that from me." He met her eyes for the first time that afternoon. "But, of course I'll understand if you must. Maybe it'd be entertaining…"

"How do you know about obliviation?" She was sure she hadn't mentioned it to him.

"I heard about it in the bookshop," he said innocently. "Some kids were talking about how many muggles had to have their memories taken after some, I guess a celebrity of some kind, used some magic illegally."

McGonagall pursed her lips. How out of hand had the rumors of Potter's patronous gotten? She felt sorry for him having to face it when term started. At least he had those friends of his. Potters always did make the best of friends. (Except when he didn't…)

"You claim to have a cursed object. Do you need any help? I know some very good cursebreakers."

"Oh no, I'm fine. I mean, I couldn't trouble you. It's not a problem."

"Mr. Kaiba was convinced it was dangerous."

"Ah, well Mokuba exaggerates! In fact I'd say it was less of a cursed object and more of just a magical artifact. My father gave it to me and it wouldn't be wrong to call it a… family heirloom." Bakura's lips twisted.

Perhaps the boy was a squib? That would make all of this so much easier. It would explain why the muggle repelling charms hadn't worked as well as why Bakura's name hadn't shown up along with Mokuba's. It seemed almost too neat of an explanation.

"Is that so?"

The boy chuckled, "I suppose we could always play a game over it?"

What an odd thing to say.

The elder Kaiba stalked towards them, irritation in every dramatic flair of his coat. "Are you dorks coming or not? I thought you said you had a schedule to keep lady," he mocked. McGonagall mentally assigned him a month of detention.

"Oh yes, we're ready Kaiba." Bakura started walking to the Leaky Caldron's wall where Mokuba was leaning. Kaiba's expression when he looked at him was odd but the teen spun on his heel and also began walking away.

"We weren't done." She spoke sharply. Bakura stopped in his tracks, frozen. She waited a moment before continuing. "If you ever need help, Mr. Bakura I will direct you to the best cursebreaker I know. I assure you, you don't have to live with something dangerous like that."

He laughed, "and I assure you that everything's more than fine, Professor."

"Alright." She ignored Kaiba's raised eyebrows, "then I suppose it's time for is all to be on our way." If the Ministry had been even a modicum more reliable at the moment she would have pressed it. Unfortunately until Albus's political drama blew over, she couldn't trust them. They'd no doubt make things worse for the boy.

Bakura accidentally bumped into Kaiba on the way back to Kaiba. Kaiba grunted and pulled out his odd vocabulary of "dweeb" and "clumsier than Wheeler." Bakura apologized but also gave her an odd smile. What a strange boy.

* * *

 **A/N:** Sooo this took a lot more time than I imagined it would... I legit started this chapter 3 different times and just didn't like it. For some reason Diagon Alley just wouldn't cooperate until today when suddenly things started fitting together. But hey, I'm posting! Haven't done that in a while. Maybe this semester I'll actually have the energy to write more! I know I'm hopeful :D

Anyways, thank you so much readers, followers, and reviewers! I can't say when the next chapter will be out but I've had the sorting written for literally years now soooo hopefully it's not gonna be ridiculous. What houses do you think the Kaiba brothers will get into?


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